52 detainees killed in Iraq

At least 52 detainees were killed in a militant attack on a police station in Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, security sources said Tuesday.

Security forces repelled an attack by the terrorist gangs on a police station in al-Mafraq area of western Baquba, Xinhua quoted Lieutenant General Qassim Atta, security spokesman of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, as saying.

Fifty-two detainees were killed by hand grenades and mortar shelling, Atta said.

He also confirmed that the forces have repelled the attackers in western Diyala's provincial capital city of Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad.

A police source in the province put the number of the killed detainees at 44, saying that the medical reports showed that some of them were killed by bullets, others were suffocated to death by smoke or fell victim to shrapnel.

Most of the killed detainees faced suspected charges of terrorism, and a few of them were held for criminal charges, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

However, residents in the city held the forces responsible for the killing of detainees, but the authorities denied the accusation, according to the provincial source.